Taiping Rebellion 1850 - 1864

The Taiping Rebellion, as much as anything, marked the end of the Imperial system in China. There were two main influences that made the rebellion such a potent force. Firstly the Qing dynasty was a foreign dynasty run by an elite of Manchu families. Han people were not allowed to marry Manchus or settle in Manchuria. All men had to wear their hair in a 'pigtail' or 'queue' ➚ as a continual reminder of submission to Qing rule. Secondly Chinese people along the coast were in contact with foreign people with different creeds and philosophies. News of the French Revolution and the fall of the Bourbon dynasty ➚ excited much interest. The general level of belief in the traditional Buddhist and Daoist religions was in decline and the Taipings offered a reinvigorated religious revival. The first Opium War had demonstrated the weakness of the Qing regime and it had greatly increased the burden of taxes. There was a regional ingredient too, southern China had for centuries considered itself separate to the north, remembering with some nostalgia the prosperous days of the Southern Song dynasty.

Christian Vision

Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全) [1 Jan 1814 - 1 Jun 1864)] was the leader of the Taipings 太平 (transliterated as ‘Great Leveling’ or ‘Great Peace’) with a mixture of Chinese; Christian and European ideas. Hong Xiuquan came across Christian missionaries and the Bible at an early age in Guangdong. After an illness he had a vision in which he believed himself divinely inspired. Hong offered equality between men and women as well as reform to the hated system of land ownership where landlords exploited poor tenant farmers. Chinese people with a grievance against the Qing system enthusiastically joined the new movement. From this reformist point of view, the Taiping rebellion is seen as the forerunner of the Republican and Communist mass movements one hundred years later.

“You, our countrymen, have been aggrieved by the oppressions of the Manchus long enough: if you do not change your politics, and with united strength and courage sweep away every remnant of these Tartars, how can you answer it to God in the highest heavens? We have now set in motion our righteous army, above to revenge the insult offered to God in deceiving Heaven, and below to deliver China from its inverted position, thus sternly sweeping away every vestige of Tartar influence and unitedly enjoying the happiness of the Taiping dynasty.”

Rebellion spreads

The two 'Opium Wars' between Britain and China 1839-1860 mark China's forced change in direction after thousands of year of dynastic rule. Defeat by a far away foreign power created turmoil in China and triggered the 'century of humiliation' from which China only emerged in 1949.

The rebellion began in Guangdong where Bibles had been brought into Guangzhou. Hong (a member of the Hakka minority people) had by 1847 taken control of the whole Guangxi province. One of the by products of the first Opium War was that ports had been opened up all along the coastline, making many porters and tradesmen redundant in Guangzhou; the debilitating addiction to opium was also concentrated in this area. By 1850 the movement had become a powerful force of organized armed resistance; in 1853 he had captured the Yangzi valley and the great city of Nanjing. A large Manchu army was defeated and slaughtered. Some foreign missionaries became convinced that the movement would bring Christianity to China and a million bibles were printed. Gambling; opium; tobacco; foot-binding and alcohol were forbidden, equality of rights were established and Buddhist and Daoist temples were destroyed. At the peak of the rebellion two thirds of the land of China was under Taiping control. If they had pressed north there is little doubt they would have swept away the Manchu rulers, but Hong was content to remain at his capital at Nanjing. However, weaknesses soon became apparent, the Taipings failed to win over the literati elite and so could not install the necessary bureaucracy to run their kingdom effectively. In particular the dykes controlling the river flow were not maintained leading to floods and famines. Many of their promised reforms, particularly land reforms were not carried through leading to unrest and disillusionment. In addition, a predictable eruption of internal strife within the hierarchy of Taiping 'kings' weakened central control.

Site of King Shiwang's Residence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Jinhua, Zhejiang the key historical sites under state protection. April 2011
Available by Doctoroftcm ➚ under a Creative Commons license ➚.

Opium Wars

All this was happening at the same time of European pressure for 'Free Trade' which lead to the Opium Wars (1839-1860) and it was European interests that controlled the outcome of the Rebellion. A policy of strict neutrality by the foreign powers was initially adopted, allowing the Europeans to supply guns and military advice to both sides; a Civil War is a lucrative business for the arms trade. Two Englishmen proved vital to the outcome of the rebellion Augustus Lindley ➚ for the Taipings and Charles 'Chinese' Gordon ➚ for the Qing forces. Foreign observers at first applauded the transformation in Taiping lands:

“Throughout their long line of march, for 1,500 miles, over fertile and populous districts, plunders, murder, and rape, the usual attendant curses of Asiatic warfare, were denounced and punished by death. With more than Puritanical strictness, they waged an internecine war with the most dearly cherished sensual habits of their countrymen. The ten moral rules of the Decalogue were enforced, and a stricter interpretation attached to its terms. Amorous glances, libidinous songs, and all the common incentives to profligacy, were prohibited and abandoned. The drinking of wine, the smoking of tobacco, gambling, lying, swearing, and, above all, indulgence in the fumes of opium, were denounced and abolished with a moral determination which permitted no half measures.”George Smith ➚, Bishop of Victoria, Hong Kong.

“There are important questions which we have to consider respecting the character of the religion of the insurgents; e.g.: Are its doctrines essentially those of the Christian religion? Do the elements of truth preponderate over those of error? Are the defects, which may be observable among them, such as constitute a reasonable ground for condemning the whole movement as one of unmingled evil, and the work of Satanic power? Or, on the other hand, are they the natural shortcomings of a body of imperfectly enlightened men, placed in a situation of novel difficulty, laboring under almost unexampled disadvantages in their pursuit of truth, without spiritual instructors and guides, with only a few copies of the Holy Scriptures, and those apparently in small, detached, and fragmentary portions, with no forms of prayer or manuals of devotion, having their minds distracted amid the arduous toil of a campaign and the work of religious proselytism, with no definite views or clear knowledge respecting the sacraments, the Christian ministry, or the constitution of a Church - engaged in a struggle for life and death - and yet, amid all these hindrances and drawbacks, evincing a hopeful, praiseworthy, and promising vigor of mind and independence of action, in the great undertaking of a moral revolution of their country?”George Smith ➚, Bishop of Victoria, Hong Kong.

Many see China as an authoritarian society with the government firmly in control. Sometimes a news story comes along that shows that the government does not always get its own way. In Shanghai a 'nailhouse' has just been demolished that has stood in the way of a main road for fourteen years. A 'nailhouse' is a house where the owners have held out against developers usually in the hope for a better offer of compensation. There are a number of them spread over China. In this particular case the three story house was in the middle of an arterial four lane road in Songjiang district, Shanghai. The family eventually accepted relocation to a new flat, perhaps the noise got too much in the end. It is unclear whether they were given a better deal than they were initially offered.

Divide and Rule

The eventual judgment made by Britain and other foreign powers was that their interests were better served by supporting a severely weakened Qing regime rather than the strange and unpredictable Taipings. Christian missionaries came to see the Taipings as not true Christians but heretics and withdrew their support. This is despite the Taiping placement of key Christian doctrine such as the ten commandments at the heart of their religion. It is widely stated that Hong claimed to be Christ's younger brother, but this is a misunderstanding of the Chinese term 'younger brother' 兄弟xiōng dì which meant 'follower' rather than an actual relative. Perhaps Hong's self-appointed role of prophet of his own version of Christianity was too dangerous a precedent for foreign Christians to accept. However it was plain to all foreigners who visited southern China that the Taiping regime was more benign and open than the archaic Manchu regime. With the second Opium War (1856-1860) raging at the time, Britain feared the Taiping rebels might overrun the treaty ports they had just wrested from the Qing regime.

“The undersigned will therefore call upon the commanders of Her Majesty's naval and military authorities to take proper measures to prevent the inhabitants of Shanghai from being exposed to massacre and pillage, and to lend their assistance to put down any insurrectionist movements among the ill-disposed, and to protect the city against any attack.”Frederick Bruce ➚ writing to British authorities, 26th May 1860 Shanghai.

Taiping rebels are chased out of Yuzhuang, March 8 1854. The Taiping arrived the previous day but had to retire the next day when the Manchus arrived in hot pursuit. From Ten scenes recording the retreat and defeat of the Taiping Northern Expeditionary Forces, February 1854-March 1855.
Source : web site ➚
Available under a Creative Commons license ➚.

The Chinese system of astronomical observation is as ancient and distinctly different that as that developed in Europe and the Middle East. More emphasis was put on the moon than the sun and stars were arranged into groups according to a view of the Imperial system.

Taiping Legacy

This was more than a geo-political tussle; the rebellion cost millions of human lives, with 20 to may be 50 million dead it rates above World War I ➚ in the number of casualties. Much of this brutality was at the hands of the Manchus who made ‘scorched earth’ reprisals against the rebels. The Taiping Rebellion was a grass-roots rebellion fought by ordinary peasants and not by trained armies. It had great influence on those taking part in the next Chinese Civil War (1927-1950) between the Nationalists and Communists when the Communists relied on the support of the rural poor people. With the aid of foreign mercenaries and imported arms, China learned how to discipline an army, use modern weaponry and update military tactics. Mao Zedong for instance learned from General Zeng Guofan ➚ the leading Qing military genius, who in turn had learned them from General Gordon.

After the fall of Nanjing, the Qing system of control lay in tatters, the Manchu rulers had given up control to local leaders (warlords) such as Li Hongzhang ➚ to fight the Taipings in an echo of the break-up of the Tang dynasty. The Qing Emperors never again ruled China directly, they had to administer with the backing of the strong local warlords. Dowager Empress Cixi who is widely seen as the villain who gave in to foreign demands was left very little room to maneuver. The warlords that ruled much of China as a result of the Taiping Rebellion were left firmly in control, if China’s long history was to be repeated it could well have been one of these warlords who went on to found a new dynasty. In fact it was Sun Yatsen’s Republican movement that became the winner and Imperial China came to an end.

Zeng Guofan 曾国藩[26 Nov 1811 - 12 Mar 1872]

Zeng Guofan is famous as a Qing military leader who helped put down the Taiping Rebellion.
He is an important figure in Chinese history because he was the first to use Western military training to build a new style Chinese army division. The traditional Chinese army training and tactics had proved ineffective against both the Taiping and the European powers. Zeng's division of ‘Hunan Braves’ were recruited from rural areas and he trained them hard. Many came from his native Xiangxiang county. Zeng Guofan hand-picked his officers from among the local scholars, he himself was considered a great Confucian scholar and poet. He instigated a new marine unit that could use the extensive network of waterways to attack and quickly retreat. These tactics held back the Taipings from the central Yangzi area in 1853 ( parts of Hunan and Jiangxi). The success of Guofan and his brother Guoquan impressed the Manchu leadership and the force was expanded from the original 20,000 men. As well as reforming the army he sought to modernize civilian rule as well. He realized that the support rather than opposition of the local people was vital to military success.

Li Hongzhang based the ‘Ever Victorious Army’ on Zeng's ‘Hunan Braves’ and eventually with Western aid, the Taipings were defeated. Zeng was rewarded with many high honors by a grateful Manchu emperor. However, the emergence of strong regional leaders such as Guofan led to the period of warlordism that dominated late Qing and the Republican period of Chinese history. Zeng worked with the British General Charles Gordon ➚ on the Shanghai defenses, and he learned modern British military tactics from Gordon.

The years 1912-49 marked the difficult transition from centuries of Imperial dynastic rule to that of a Republic. Sun Yatsen's dream of a democratic Republic was never achieved amidst the turmoil of the Japanese Occupation and then the Civil War with the Communists.

Zeng published a proclamation in Central China, full of Confucian doctrine and neatly summarizes the differences between Confucian and Taiping doctrine.

“Since the days of Tang, Yu, and the Three Dynasties, the sages of all ages have been sustaining traditional culture and emphasizing the order of human relationships. Hence, ruler and officials, father and children, high and low, honored and humble, were ordered in their respective positions as hat and shoes which can never be placed upside down. Now, the Yueh [Taiping] bandits steal some dregs of foreign barbarians and adhere to the religion of God; from their fake king and fake ministers down to the soldiers and menial servants, they address one another as brothers, alleging that only Heaven can be called father. Aside from this, all the fathers of the people are brothers and all the mothers are sisters. The farmers cannot cultivate their own fields to pay taxes, because it is said that all the land belongs to the Heavenly King. The merchants cannot do their own business to make profit because it is said that all commodities belong to the Heavenly King. The scholars cannot read the classics of Confucius, but they have others called the doctrines of Jesus and the book of the New Testament.

In short, the moral system, ethical relationships, cultural inheritance, and social institutions and laws of the past several thousand years in China are all swept away. This is not only a calamity in our great Qing Dynasty but is, in fact, the most extraordinary disaster since the creation of the universe, and that is what Confucius and Mencius are crying bitterly about in the nether world. How can all those who study books and know the characters sit comfortably with hands in sleeves without doing something about it?”

His role as a minor figure in the Taiping Rebellion is eclipsed by his later influence. Fellow Hunanese Mao Zedong chose Zeng Guofan as his childhood hero. The new style army division of Zeng Guofan served as a model for Mao Zedong's strategy for military training. Chinese armies no longer were built from conscripted part-time militia fighting by rules dating back to the days of Sun Wu's Art of War 2,500 years ago.